you know really i. panicked markets lead america's plunge off the fiscal cliff while the republicans and democrats. as the number of dead in the plane crash rises to five and investigators begin the painstaking process into the accident we take you step by step through the sequence of events plus my territory in europe and of people across the arab world to the rise of political awareness in russia as the world turns a new page to twenty. recaptures all the twists and turns of the year.

and i welcome you watching r.t. live from moscow with me. now the united states has all but begun its plunge off the fiscal cliff at least on the markets and with last minute talks between republicans and democrats falling apart yet again america could be in for a hard landing wall street is in full retreat seeing five straight days of selloffs as panicky investors jumped ship on new year's day six hundred billion dollars worth of tax hikes and federal cuts are slated to come into force in america and the deal to avert that is still no way in sight. reports the makings of this crisis were there for all to see now the u.s. congress created this cliff situation when they failed to agree on a budget that would help the country reduce its deficit and its you mongers debt

and what they did was what they usually do they put off those important decisions until a certain deadline that deadline is now so they came up with this scary word cliff to create lots of drama around what should be the ordinary maybe somewhat boring working process of any congress or parliament that is to agree on a budget the need to deadlines so the cliff which actually describes the mode in which the congress is working their inability to make decisions until the very very last minute the cliff that u.s. lawmakers have artificially created could become very real for the american people the vast majority of them over one thousand government programs would be cut it would hit the unemployed very hard they would stop getting unemployment benefits there would be other automatic cuts and tax hikes that would mostly affect those who are financially insecure but everyone knows even if the lawmakers don't meet the january first headline they can pass measures retroactively and at the end of

the day they will decide something but congress seems to love the drama of the whole cliff situation they have all the attention in the world and literally the whole world the media of course helped them hype it up and were. countdown they started two months ago and while politicians here are enjoying all that attention turning last minute scoring political points the hype around the scary word cliff is already hurting the economy experts say it's affecting business and consumer confidence if wall street is any indicator stocks have been falling for a fifth straight day on friday they called it a fiscal cliff slide other markets are reaching signals certainty coming from the u.s. oil prices have soared in the asian markets ahead of a last minute effort in washington to reach a deal on fiscal cliff that's what you read in the news so this whole charade in washington could have implications on many levels and the fiscal cliff which some

call a product of u.s. lawmakers imagination could become a self-fulfilling prophecy well charlie mcgrath founder of wide awake he says it is ironic that america's main parties have difficulty reaching a deal on policies to aid the nation's pull but had little trouble agreeing on the defense budget. work in the united states of america this is where we govern by crisis we don't have representatives in washington d.c. we have political prostitutes that will go before a camera and say that anything that they have to say is you keep this massive government rolling and you can make special interest influence in washington d.c. or that when the cameras are on you know they're on the red team they're going out there saying it's the welfare folks as well it's the people on food stamps or the people who are extended unemployment benefits if they're on the blue team they're coming out and trying to get their base fired up that it's all about their corporate interest and this is why we can't come up with you but isn't it me when the cameras are off and it's time to pass

a trillion dollar nearly trillion dollar defense bill they have no problem whatsoever coming to coming together and holding hands or put that kind of if you are. syrian rebels press on with the offensive in the north of the country they reportedly take over an oil pumping station after days of intense fighting amid calls for dialogue from russia and the international peace and boy. as if trying to find a way through a complex tax system wasn't enough in the u.k. millions have been paying through the nose for telephone services to help them navigate it that's coming up later. another crew member has died after the crash landing of a passenger jet one of moscow's busiest airports bringing the number of dead to five three of those are still fighting for their lives in hospital the redwings plane skidded off the runway and plowed into the embankment of a major highway on saturday scattering debra over the road experts believe bad weather brake system failure or simple pilot error could have led to the tragedy.

now looks at how the events unfolded. the twenty ninth of december the last working day of two thousand and twelve in russia. business is closed all business forgotten until the next year families friends employees jump into their cars and escape the busy capital he's got highway heads to the west a region where most of the luxury states and country houses are located traffic jams are common with a song with a day and this time of the year but want to lock the road is almost empty. passengers come out of the car to see what the sound was a big stack to see anything but not this.

just minutes before that and similar to all for what number ninety six i think is wendell to acknowledge the first times it's unsuccessful the plane makes around over the airport and begins to send in for a second time when they sign the plane touches down but can stall the experienced crew at that moment very slightly knows already they will not make it but jets reaches the end of the runway runs into the fans but still continues moving it finally stops after overrunning the asteroid by four hundred meters the plane breaks into three parts and tail is lying over the whole year the road people can easily see it's number or a fix for four seven the middle part just bog misses away the cockpit already partially damaged after the crash with a science falls right at the edge of the highway it's a miracle indeed the road is empty at that time this is a ten lane highway the wreckage is only on one of the lanes traffic continues on at

least three here even after the tragedy does fashion by slowing down to see what happens they look to and measure and possibly find on the run the various roads they usually drive every friday and everybody sings a sad moment was eve eyes had come minutes earlier or was eve i have been on that airplane people come out of their cars and try to help out those in the cockpit how ready that. weather conditions technical failure and pilot error are among investigators main causes of the incident was most likely a combination of reasons behind the fatal crash however a plane hitting. easy highway in one of europe's biggest cities could have lived a much more devastating trail of destruction there wasn't enough log for everyone on that saturday evening. and often our party moscow region.

as well if you want but opinion on what may have caused the crash or more on the plane itself head to r.t. dot com all that and much more is lined up for you there fighting between syrian government troops and opposition forces has intensified with new clashes in the north of the country the rebels have also reportedly captured an oil pumping station that's is as the international envoy for peace in syria reiterated that dialogue is the only way out of the crisis this was fully supported by russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov as the to discuss the matter in moscow dr ali mohammed the editor in chief of the syria tribe in online magazine believes the rebels are preparing for preparing ground for foreign intervention. they're all for the opposition to the show will never win over the syrian army they were established to create chaos and the fear of the country for what it is the reaction now for intervention is not having the not wide river that we should come up with

him but the i think believe it was difficult for the syrian army and government what should be moved is a wide dialogue between all three and work. all the superpowers in the world through the through to pressure of the opposition for dialogue and this leaning more. or this can lead to violence the need to see for. real. there is no pressure to prevent. the army to leave and there were definitely. we would be able to control the situation and after that they have to understand that there is no solution but with dialogue and with backward progress that it was. a us ambassador with a price on his head al-qaeda in yemen promises three kilograms of gold for the life of america is a mystery to the country that is online for you plus overweight medics in the u.k. should set a good example by having surgery and stop eating junk food that's what

a new official report is expected to suggest read more about it at r.t. dot com. now there are lots of things you might want to spend your hard earned cash on this holiday season family presents friends for example probably filing your tax return though isn't among them but people millions of people in britain are doing just that at the moment as official telephone helpline charge astronomic fees so people can put money in the state coffers. your annual tax return persis that many adults find utterly daunting and perplexing luckily for the british public the tax man has a whole array of telephone helplines to help and advise people on how to fill in the piles of forms needed for it getting through to someone might be a bit of

a problem though britain is spending watchdog says that last year some twenty million phone calls went on our answered by the government tax office and of those lucky enough to get through between the months of april and september over six million people had to wait for over ten minutes just to get an answer from someone and i've decided to give him revenue and customs premium priced phone line a call to find out how long it would take me to get through to them. i've spent over three and a half minutes waiting for someone to pick up the phone. last year customer spent an estimated thirty three million pounds in call charges just waiting to get through to somebody at the tax department exposing what critics call a shameful level of service him revenue and customs have released a statement saying that they've lowered the cost of calls to one of their premium

phone lines the most popular one they also say that they're aware that they weren't able to deliver the standard of service that they're committed to in the past however they're now answering over ninety percent of the calls that are made to them but ultimately critics say that it's the complicated u.k. tax code that spans over seventeen thousand pages that british citizens find it so hard to get their head around and it's the telephone providers that are responsible for the helplines that a crushing in on all the tax confusion. to northern ireland now where an attempt to kill a policeman by detonating a bomb under his car has been thwarted offices officers noted the device not far from the houses of parliament before calling in the disposal squad people were evacuated from a nearby church during the operation pro british loyalists have been rioting in belfast over the last two weeks after the union jack flag was taken down from outside the government building. two people have died and seven others are injured

after a devastating landslide covered a highway in southwest colombia it's thought the death toll could rise as several cars are still trapped under the earth some three hundred emergency services personnel are on the scene with heavy machinery and rescue dogs. the president of venezuela hugo chavez has suffered another health complication related to a cancer operation he underwent earlier this month he developed a rash infection after the surgery and is currently in hospital in the cuban capital have ana the socialist president was expected to be sworn in for a third term on january tenth. the bitter fallout from the arab spring together with the desperate street battles and debt hit europe plus heated presidential races both in russia and the u.s. as the new year is knocking at the door we look back at the uneasy legacy of twenty twelve. my account which critics think i'd have to put it wow has

reached its and long with the number calendar thank you but it looks more like this year a decade of war is an. hour. is it right here. well we're still here and when it comes down to it the world not only didn't end but very little changed in twenty twelve we have the same challenges facing the globe the same conflicts preventing peace the same policies hampering solutions and many of the same people in power as we come into twenty thirteen so what will twenty twelve be remembered for let's take a look back. at some in gaza their world did and when israel launched

a short but then big campaign in response to rockets fired by hamas after one of their leaders was assassinated us solidly backed israel but critics claim the use of disproportionate force has become too common a practice for your truly defense force journalist also being targeted and children becoming casualties it has the same policy if you like the united states with regard to collateral damage that it's happy to injure dozens of palestinian men women and children as long as they can kill one person who money to help fire a rocket into israel shortly after a cease fire palestine celebrated gaining u.n. nonmember status but it's still a long way from statehood as is the region from a peaceful two state solution israel and palestine this was conflict continues to rage in neighboring syria you know that trouble possibly stay running his country. he has to go assad must go but charlotte said the demands and

predictions that syria's president would fall in twenty trials went on for fulfill his sat down for an exclusive interview with r t well into the year insisting he would not give up as the push for regime change continued and terror reigned in his country of i'm not popular in me but with the with for twenty other countries i'm sick and i mean. i may be in syria and i have to revisit him but it's going to be very deemed everything from civil war to sectarian fighting to terrorism to genocide syria stay the center of a media war through out twenty twelve with unconfirmed atrocities on both sides haunting the web and only one side taking the brunt of the blame for assad is crazy he's a brutal dictator reese killing his own people this is the same narrative that we've heard about gadhafi. but we didn't hear much about libya in two thousand and twelve on most networks or from western officials not until the aftermath of regime change

there and the terror that ensued went to heart u.s. ambassador and embassy staff were killed in benghazi in september the most significant event two thousand and twelve is the failure of nato to follow up on its on its libya momentum to create a forced regime change through proxy. mercenaries in syria and the fact that russia and china and iran stood firm on. the entire time table that nato at the at in mind to run this stabilization. and now the entire arab spring scenario is. it's not disintegrating it's becoming a nightmare one that spread to western allies in the region like bahrain for mass protest arrest and even death haven't provoked much global media coverage or any push for democracy. instead provocations like the film the innocence of

a muslim made headlines and incited outrage across the arab world funded in the u.s. and considered highly offensive to islam the movie didn't go over well in states now run by islamist after post revolution polls in egypt and tunisia. u.s. embassies were left in shambles us blacks burned and freedom of speech was back on the debate or tonight the film was banned in some countries like russia and defended by others like the states as a protective device of expression a right not awarded to whistleblowers like julian a song who had a busy year and here he was granted political asylum by ecuador after being released on bail while the waiting a british court's decision on his extradition to sweden for most of twenty twelve assan to remain under house arrest but still managed to find a great telling to can change the world tomorrow his groundbreaking exclusive interview show premiered on our teens and always on sat down with guests shunned by

the mainstream media like has the last house on the front and internet freedom on his visit to the site where the future of the internet i think it is no journalist with the salt in the world working today has not used a wiki leaks cable whether it be at the lowest level of covering their local health center to the idea of schools advocation let alone geopolitics still many journalists slammed the songes work on r t and he continues to be a man the west and mainstream media love to hate while he remains holed up at the ecuadorian embassy in london fearing u.k. officials will grab him the moment he steps outside. protests ripped across europe in twenty twelve as the euro crisis worsened leaving many no choice but to go out onto the streets so many people are becoming desperate people agog. i think angrier and angrier spain had millions on the street at

a time demanding the government stop cuts and demos continued in greece who got a forty four billion euro bailout masses were met with heavy handed policing in most countries across the e.u. which was awarded a nobel peace prize in twenty trials i am right. they ultimately if there are too many protests won't even be able to afford the policemen on the streets and therefore we could actually end up not so much with a violent reaction from government but there's actually a danger of an arcade because government itself may break down the crowd is. not the case in the u.s. where the occupy movement lost momentum this year corporate back media and authorities managed to dull demonstrations demanding economic equality and responsibility just one of a party that there was you know you wait for occupy to expand from its needs and from that. you know usually you write it by the elites as

a bunch of anarchists or yeah the poor students who know how to sing better to do this is to organize themselves fully to something the group is promising in twenty thirteen with some predicting the old ws movement might have better luck in europe . russia saw a protest this year leading up to and after vladimir putin was elected for a third time as president but not nearly as big as what we saw at the end of twenty young love and i think the demonstrations in russia were motivated by frustration the demonstrators had the care political goal which was to discredit the good of the reputation of a christian or even to. knowing that those could be you know you that russian going to win the election they had no choice they had no possibility of beating them in an election so they tried to their strategy was instead to discredit the east in the eyes of the west just before putin's inauguration protests in central moscow turned violent for the first time since the. yes an opposition movement

began to rally against the arrests were made in both protesters and police reported injuries several demonstrators face court hearings on charges of inciting mass public disorder and a dozen more trials will carry on in the new year with the opposition claiming this is all part of a kremlin clamp down on their movement but putin's reelection and protests didn't get nearly as much attention as this. week was the riots rocked riot on the altar of christ the savior and the scandal that followed made world headlines took over the blog a sphere and had celebrities like madonna just sending them to the russian orthodox church she was outraged. there is no defense in this case it's simple p.r. lawyers uncorking out on all of their working towards the brand in order to capitalize on it in the future and it's worked some of the groups girls got two years in jail for the stunt which was criticized by the west as too harsh the story

remained in the headlines for weeks on end leaving little room for stories like this. thank you very much the way the u.s. presidential candidate jill stein and her running mate arrested for protesting outside a debate for top party only candidates obama and romney the american system is designed to eliminate political opposition like some of the you know dictatorships that we criticize the debate makes a mockery of our democracy despite being on the ballot in a not states to technically win stine and other candidates were not allowed to debate and got almost no coverage in the lead up to elections on the u.s. networks instead third party candidates only chance to debate live on television here was for marty's washington studio i think our founding fathers would be spinning it in their graves if they could see this. in line with holmes and. dictions obama won the election but his work is cut out for along with other world

leaders to be here to become a muffin commie growing discontent and conflicts either standing still or rating while he's now a party. so what is a grip your attention this year what do you tell us via twitter hash tag your messages with the recall and share your highlights of the game coming up we made an orthodox priest who built a whole village for his adopted children or seventy of the dozen a special report in a few minutes time. something

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rivals some decades. if good fifteen thousand people killing each other in any other country there would be diplomats there would be mediators. self-imposed out costs from society i will cut myself chemical attack my brother understand my contact immediately. going to leave basically attack the cause of my anger and my frustration. that.

well into the. truth of the most violent gangs in u.s. history. the stall model killing joke with colors matching the national flag. that this country uses violence when it reaches and then it legitimizes the violence they all made in america on the odyssey.